Follow the Money!

The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are expressing outraged at the loop holes in the TARP Bill and Stimulus Bill that allowed the AIG bonuses. How ironic, since they knew about these bonuses and were responsible for creating the loopholes that made them possible.

AIG’s plan to pay more than $469 million in “retention payments was detailed in a November 2008 SEC filing and the Federal Reserve even hired lawyers to review the AIG bonuses.

If they were so outraged why did Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut write a special amendment to the Stimulus Bill that specifically EXEMPTED those bonuses? His exemption stated that the provisions of the bill “shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009.”

When Dodd was confronted about this he claimed that the Treasury Department insisted on including this exemption. Then in an interview with CNN he contradicted himself and denied inserting the 11th hour exemption, insisting he doesn’t even know how it got there.

The full Senate also knew that this exemption was in the bill. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R- Maine, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon were so concerned that they proposed a bipartisan amendment to the Stimulus Bill that would have taxed bonuses on any company getting federal bailout dollars, if the company didn’t pay back the bonus money to the government.

Now, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, is admitting that it was a mistake to strip that amendment from the Stimulus Bill. In a stunning admission he said:

“Frankly it was such a rush — we’re talking about the Stimulus Bill now — to get it passed, I didn’t have time and other conferees didn’t have time to address many of the provisions that were modified significantly,” ….. “We shouldn’t be here. That should have passed, but it didn’t,” he said.

This is the same Stimulus Bill that Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly supported and that they and the Obama administration criticized Republicans for weeks for not supporting. Now look who has egg on their face.

What about our Congressman. Eric Massa? As you may recall, when confronted over his support of the Stimulus Bill in a meeting in Canandaigua a few weeks ago, Congressman Massa proudly proclaimed that he read every word of that Stimulus Bill. So if he knew the Dodd exemption was in the bill why did he support it?

It sounds all very confusing but sometimes the easiest answer is to just follow the money. As it turns out, Barak Obama and Senator Chris Dodd were the two largest recipients of campaign contributions from AIG, and the only politicians to receive six-figure amounts. Obama got $101,332 for his campaign and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd got $103,100. Over the years Dodd has gotten over $280,000 from AIG.

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baukus made out pretty well too. He has collected more money from AIG in his congressional career than from any other company–$91,000. Our New York delegation got their share too. Senator Clinton got $59,515 last year and while Senator Schumer, a Senate Finance Committee member, feigns outrage he got $38,500 for his campaign.

Campaign contributions are just bonuses for political support and recipients should be held accountable. Campaign contributions and all other bonuses should be returned to the taxpayers who are underwriting the AIG bailout?